


Love Works

by Laina



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-02 20:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1061245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laina/pseuds/Laina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was based off of requests for pairings on my old tumblr, which I no longer use. </p><p>The first request I got was DaveJane. </p><p>This has been and will continue to just be a fun story to practice my writing. If you have a direction you really think the story should take, say the word and I'll do my best to write it in. Or if you really wanna see a pairing in this story, leave a comment letting me know! I'm more than willing to do that for you.</p><p>This will be sfw and if there IS anything nsfw it will be skippable and in its own chapter. Rated T for language.</p><p>(all notes in the story remain unedited, but I try to update once every week or two!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Totally Ironic Practice of (not) Stalking

Dave didn’t know her name, but she was pretty. Really pretty. She had a big smile and wore glasses. Not that that was a problem. Glasses were hot. 

And she had short black hair. Everyone knows that a girl with short hair like that is one confident motherfucker. And who doesn’t like confidence? (Hint: Nobody). Damn. 

She spent a lot of time in the home ec room. Not that he’d followed her there or anything. He just noticed. Really. 

"Dave," came John’s voice from beside him. "Are you even listening to me?"

No. He was thinking about the hot confident chick in the home ec room they’d just walked by.

"Yeah of course, you were talking about Nic Cage." he said. it was either that or con air. If it was ghost busters he was screwed. 

"Uh well.. I wasn’t actually. But it was leading up to that."

Con air. Pretty close. 

They sat down in the cafeteria and John pulled out his lunch, which was packed in a small plastic bag. 

"Okay, crossing our fingers that I don’t have cake today…" 

Dave smirked, waiting for the groan. 

"Ughhhh, every day!" 

There it was. Dave didn’t know what John had against cake, even if it was from a box. If his brother made him cake (or any food for that matter) at even half the rate that John’s dad baked cake, he’d be totally okay with that. 

"How ‘bout we trade?" John suggested.

Dave didn’t know why he bothered to ask because they did it every day. But, at least John was being a polite gentleman. Or something like that.

As Dave spread out his lunch of mostly other kinds of junk food, she walked in with one of her friends, a blonde girl who always seemed to wear scarves. 

Dave sucked in a breath. Nope, his heart totally did not just do that uncool skip a beat thing. That’s too cliché to even be ironic.

Wait, she just turned around.

Maybe she forgot something in her locker. Dave didn’t know where that was yet. He stood up, intending to follow her.

"Choose what you want dude, just leave me the apple juice," he said.

"Where are you going?" asked John, oblivious to the fact that Dave had what could only be called a crush.

"Bathroom," Dave replied simply, and tried to look sophisticated as he tried with all his might not to run after this girl.

Hot black haired chick turned down the west hallway and oh wow holy crap hers was like 3 from the end. Also this was the same hallway where his locker was.

He nonchalantly sauntered past her and went to his locker. Can’t make it look like he was following her after all.

He messed up on the combination about three times. Mostly because he was busy looking up at her over his sunglasses and through his bangs. She pulled something out of her locker and then walked away.

Dave went and checked out the locker number, just for reference.

403.

Okay. Noted. No..te.d.. ..no ..te..

Note.

He would leave a note (yes a love note who cares?? its totally ironic for a guy to leave a girl a love note… right??). 

But not now, how long does a guy spend in the bathroom anyways?? John of all people would get very suspicous. And he didn’t know her name yet anyways. 

Everyone knows that if you leave a love letter you have to be as mysterious and cheesy as possible while still knowing their name.


	2. Letters To Nobody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave does some lusting after a lovely lady.  
> He also makes a few new friends.
> 
> That is all.
> 
> Feel free to requests events or pairings ! (:

_Dear lovely lady with the most amazing smile..._

_  
_Well if that wasn't the cheesiest thing that Dave had ever written unironically then he'd be lying.

But girls loved that kind of romantic stuff, right? And if they loved romance, he'd have to deliver. 

Except he didnt know what to write after that.

Everything would be so much easier if he just knew her name. 

Hadn't he decided that he wasn't going to write anything??? Well it was good to at least write out your thoughts first.

Same as planning out his comics. Write a rough draft first.

 

"What are you writing?" John asked. It was nearing the end of lunch and the cafeteria was thinning out.

"Lyrics," Dave replied. Like hell was he telling John the truth.

"You write music?" he said, surprised. Oh, you hadn't told him yet. That's cool. You'd only met a couple of weeks ago after all. 

"Yeah man, digital music and shit. I do remixes too."

"Whooaaa that's awesome! I can only play the piano, but that's _way_ cooler." John looked excited. Well damn. Looks like he made a good friend choice after all.

"You should totally come over then, my bro has a keyboard." Dave was kinda excited. He didn't know anyone who could play piano with any sort of competency. "We can make some cool beats and shit."

John looked excited.

"That sounds awesome!"

They decided where to meet that afternoon. The west door. Dave secretly picked that door because he knew his mystery lady left through that door.

No he wasn't obsessed.

\--

Class had ended 5 minutes ago, but there was still no sight of John. Or that girl. 

Dave leaned casually against the wall by the West exit, out of the way from the people walking, but still in sight so that he could still find his friend. 

There was a grouchy kid in all black who silently stood texting beside him. He was obviously waiting for someone too. Actually wait a second.

Dave casually leaned forward to try to better see the kids face. He kinda looked like a kid in his history class--?! 

They made accidental eye contact as the kid glanced up. Dave stood up and looked away quickly. Just in time to see that girl. 

"Jane!" the blond girl game running up from behind her and gave her a giant hug.

Jane.. so her name was Jane. 

Dave watched them walk out talking and laughing. 

"Hey Dave, what you looking at?"

"John!" Dave pretended that he didn't just jump a little bit.

"Fucking finally John," a voice came from behind Dave. It was that grouchy kid. 

"Karkat...!!! Oh my god, I forgot!" John looked upset. "I was supposed to walk home with you!"

"Wow, thanks a fucking lot." Karkat said with a deep scowl etched into his face.

This guy had a thing for swearing. Dave found that hilarious. 

"Uh.. I'm actually going to go over to Dave's house so I can't walk with you today..."

"Hey man," Dave interjected. "If you want you can come chill with us. That's cool with me." Any friend of John's could honestly not be that bad.

Karkat stared at Dave for a moment. 

"Um. No. I have things to do." Ouch.

"Okay, well, see you Karkat!" John said as Karkat turned to walk away. 

Well then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Lemme know if you guys want pairings or for things to happen! I'll do my best to get it in there. If you request earlier the better and easier it will be for me to put in the story
> 
> Alternatively if you think its better for me to give you guys some options at the end that'll be cool too! (:
> 
> my tumblr is cronusnyeh if you wanted to request on there, thanks guys!


	3. Karkat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy sorry its been a while !! I PROMISE I will try to keep up with this more !!
> 
> This story is kinda run on requests?? So pairing requests, headcanon requests, that kind of thing ! It's meant to take place in a high school and i started on their first year on purpose! A lot of things happen in high school right? 
> 
> Originally I was gonna keep the requests for this a secret but I changed my mind. These are the pairings that have been requested so far:
> 
> DaveJane (this should be fairly obvious by this point)  
> Cronkri  
> Equikat  
> RoxyKat
> 
> If you want to request a pairing or situation, or have a headcanon that could cause a fun situation and want to see it written about, please either leave a comment on this fic or send me a message at my tumblr (cronusnyeh.tumblr.com) 
> 
> Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

Karkat kicked a rock down the sidewalk.

Stupid John. Had he been earlier, he probably wouldn't have had to see that girl. The silly one that always smiled. She had blond hair and hung out a lot with this girl named Jane Crocker. She wasn't in Karkat's classes (in fact, she never seemed to be in any class at all). He wished she was.

He wanted to talk to John about her, since she seemed to be dominating his thoughts. Of course, John conveniently had that stupid lame sunglasses guy he was apparently friends with to go home with. 

John lived right across the street from Karkat. Both of them were on a street corner, so of course as soon as they found out, they walked together every day. In fact, that was how they met. He kinda felt like he was stalking him the first time they were walking back from school. Good thing he was friendly, Karkat certainly wasn't. 

\--

Karkat had finished classes, it was only the first day and he was exhausted. Teachers talked on and on about getting oriented around the school and encouraged them to ask for help, directions, anything. And he was pretty sure they threw way more maps his way than he really needed. In a week they would have the way to their classes memorized anyway, and a few days after that the "newbies" would know their way around the school like they lived there. 

A bunch of kids had already begun to group together. Creating godawful cliques and gossip groups. Karkat wanted nothing to do with it. 

"Janey!" Suddenly two girls fell in front of him. One was a girl with short black hair, the otehr was a blond girl who seemed absolutely devastated. 

"You cut off all your hair!!! It's all gone! It's short! Short I tell you!" cried the girl with blond hair. 

They were lying on the ground blocking Karkat's path. He stood there awkardly waiting for them to move, since it was kinda packed elsewhere.

"Yes, I cut off my hair. It kept shedding and getting into the way, so it was just easier for me to cut it off." said the girl with the dark hair. "Besides, I like it like this. Now get off of me! Everyone is staring!"

They got up and moved out of the way, the blond girl laughing and apologizing. Karkat lingered on her face for just a moment before looking to the ground again and heading home. 

Except now his paranoia was building. There was this guy who was right behind him, whistling in a very curious manner. Karkat stepped to the side and stopped, pretending to text someone while he let the guy pass. He was kinda dorky looking, with big teeth and glasses and freckles. Overall not a real threat, and he didn't seem to slow down or anything so Karkat assumed he probably was not trying to ambush him. 

He pocketed his phone and continued on his way. 

Except when the guy in front of him finally turned down a street, it was the same one that Karkat was going down. 

Great, now that guy probably assumed that he was following him. He sped up a little bit then turned down another road. Fuck. That was the same road again. 

Karkat swore he was not doing this on purpose and hoped the guy would just go down a different street for once. He tried to let the guy put some distance between them but suddenly he slowed down, then stopped. It was his turn to pretend to text. 

Great. Now Karkat would have to pass him again. 

"Uh.. " said the kid as he approached. 

Karkat nearly jumped out of his skin. He froze and just kinda stared at him. 

"You aren't gonna attack me right? I'm not very smart so I probably wouldn't be worth beating up to do your homework or anything..."

Karkat just stared at him with his mouth agap. "What the fuck?" he finally said. 

"Uhh .... " the other kid was silent for a moment. "You don't wanna beat me up?" 

"Why would I want to beat you up?? I'm pretty sure I could get beaten up pretty easily myself, idiot," Karkat said, not sure how to feel about this. "My house is down this way, I live on Wayward Boulevard."

"Oh." said freckles. "I live on that street too."

Well that solved their stalking dilemma. 

"I live on the far end," said the kid. Karkat gave him a look.

"So do I.. " 

"What?? The right side?" 

"Yeah.."

"I live on the left!" he said excitedly. Wow. Okay. So they lived across from eachother. Yaay. 

"Well let's walk together then!" the kid held out his hand. "I'm John by the way!" 

"Oh, fuck. Uhh," Karkat slowly reached out to shake John's hand. "I'm Karkat.."

"Hi Karkat!" 

After that, hey didn't really talk to eachother in school or anything, they had other friends (well, John did), but they always would get together at the end of the day and walk home together.

\--

There was another guy who lived down Wayward Boulevard. His name was Equius, and he was.. a little strange, to say the least. Defintely not in the same kinda group. He'd made the football team before he was even in the school, he was just that good in middle school. He was a great quarterback. He could take a hit and keep running, they'd won every game so far, apparently. Not like Karkat ever watched the games or anything. Y-yeah. Or the practices. Hah. Nope. 

Besides, this guy was really weird okay. He carried a towel everywhere. Nobody could work out ALL the time like that, so why would he need it? Kinda gross right? Was he really sweating that much? Did he have some sort of medical condition?? Would somebody with a medical condition even be allowed to play football???

There were just so many questions. But he was really large and Karkat by no means excelled in conversation at the best of times. 

John tried to talk to him once but he just kinda stared at the two of them until John apparently remembered his dad needed him home right away and scampered off. The bastard. He left Karkat there to just kinda.. scamper off while the football player was left standing there.

They didn't try to talk to him after that. They didn't really run into him much anyways, he would only be walking home at the same time as them on rare occaisions where he didn't have practice or wasn't off somewhere doing who knows what. Probably a job. 

Of course, today had to be a day where he didn't have practice. And Karkat didn't have John, his usual backup, for moral assistance. Equius didn't seem the sort to just attack someone but these things tend to happen when you least expect it, right?

Karkat tried to make sure there was distance between them. But when Equius turned the opposite direction from their street, his curiosity got the better of him. 

He slowly tailed him, he seemed to be headed downtown. Karkat hoped he wasn't involved in some drug scandel, selling cocaine to kids or something like that. It was the right kind of area for that to happen. He shivered.

Equius entered a building then, it was an older building, a shop of some sort. Karkat peered in the window of the shop. It seemed to have some electrical stuff, and there was a garage out in the back. It was called the Zahhak Shack. A .. garage?

Wait, what? Equius worked in a garage? Maybe he liked cars or something. When he thought about it, Karkat realized that it did sort of suit him. The big football player, bulky and confident, enjoyed working on his car. It fit in. 

He just hadn't really considered it.

Impressed with his discovery, he began his trek back home. He was pretty late and his father would probably pester him, but who cares? 

He had some cool stuff to tell John tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Sam, Kat and Denis for helping me come up with the street name lol (twas much appreciated ;D)  
> Now i need a name for Dave's apartment building! (kidding.. mostly... hah'''')
> 
> Once again, Leave your requests below or in an ask (cronusnyeh.tumblr.com)


	4. Dave's House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I updated the title! At least it sounds like something resembling a story now, unlike before. 
> 
> Also I'm finally reviving this story. I'm really sad I couldn't work on it really. I had no inspiration and it's getting harder and harder for me to write homestuck. I totally haven't finished it yet, yikes, I know. I'll get there, its on my list of things to do!! 
> 
> Anyways, hopefully you guys like this chapter. I INTEND to continue writing this story for however long I need to, hopefully it works out haha.

Dave had texted his bro letting him know that he had a friend coming over, but Bro was WEIRD sometimes when he had people over, and even though John would only be hanging out in his room, Dave was still super jumpy. He added "dont be weird" to the text though. Maybe he'd be cool today. He was always cool but cool in a different kinda way. 

The first time Dave ever had friends over, they left with a phobia of puppets. Also they never spoke to Dave again. It was a long story and if you ever met Bro, you would definitely understand. No words necessary. 

John and Dave got off the bus stop in front of his apartment and rode the sweltering elevator up and up and up to his floor. Or you were going to, until the sweaty older woman from floor 16 got on and made you climb an incessant number of steps to your apartment door. John complained loudly the whole way. 

"She didn't smell THAT bad, Dave, I could have dealt with it!" But it got worse. He just didn't know it. 

"Hey it's cool man, gotta work off the junk food we are inevitably going to _chow down_ on and all that." Dave hesitated as he unlocked the door. Please don't let a pile of smuppets fall down on us. _Please_.   
  
His prayer meant very little. Smuppets rained down from somewhere above him, John cried out in surprise. Somehow Bro had managed to rig the doorway so smuppets fell upon them. Dave was mildly impressed, but also mildly horrified, seeing as he and his best bro were kinda buried in a pile of puppets.   
  
Dave popped his head out of the pile and looked around.   
  


"John?" he asked. Was he flat on the floor or something?   
  
"Here..." Smuppets shifted as Johns head popped out from the other side of the entry way, bringing to your attention the small amount of puppets that now occupied the corridor.   
  
"Ughh, sorry man, my Bro just trying to prank us is all. Since it's your first time over and everything." _And hopefully not your last._ Dave thought. 

"It's cool" John said, half laughing. "Pranks are my favourite thing. He got us really good! Your bro is pretty cool." 

Dave allowed himself to smile, helping John out of the pile then pushing all the smuppets indoors. Ok, maybe he would be coming back over again. 

John picked up one of the puppets, examining it. "What even are these?? They look.. weird." 

Dave knocked the offending object out of his hand. "The weirdest shit you've ever seen, don't worry about it." He led a confused John over to his bedroom, and after carefully opening the door (and without any sort of surprise attack from Bro) they were settled.   
  
"Whoaaa, you have a ton of cool stuff in here." John was examining his turntables. Dave closed and locked his door, before heading to his computer and booting it up.   
  
"Thanks man, got a sweet darkroom back here too for my photography and stuff." John gave him a look.

"You mean your selfies?" 

"Same thing, my face is the most amazing piece of art you'll ever lay eyes on...." John gave a snort.

 

-

 

Dave's evening went off relatively easily. Bro clearly wasn't home, maybe he was out working or something, must have left right before they got there though. Either that or he never heard him leave (that happened sometimes). 

He was grateful though, because that meant they could do basically whatever they wanted. Including playing shitty x-box games in the living room. Which they totally did. 

They also ordered pizza, a pretty usual thing for Dave, but John had seemed over the moon. 

Close to 9pm John got a text from his dad, who was there to pick him up. 

Dave awkwardly stood by his apartment door while John tied his shoelaces. 

"I'll just take the elevator Dave, its cool, I can get down on my own. I promise."  John looked up and his smile faltered as he looked around the room. 

"What?" Dave smirked. "Sad to go?" 

John's eyes met back up with Dave's. "Yeah, kinda! I had a lot of fun today. Thanks for showing me your tunes and.. those games, I guess."

"They were pretty bad huh?" 

"Yeah," John chucked, "really bad." 

What was the protocol with saying bye to friends? Did you hug them?? Was that a thing that girls only did? Probably. 

Dave nodded at John. 

"Next time I'm gonna go to your place, cool?" 

John smiled widely. "Of course! See ya tomorrow Dave. Oh, and say hi to your brother for me!" 

With that, he scurried off to the elevator, and you closed the door. Moving to the kitchen window, which faced the street below. 

Dave watched John safely get in his father's car and drive off. He was about to go and turn off the lights when he sensed it. He whipped around to see Bro pointing his katana at him. His shades glinted in the evening light, reflecting the last orange of the day, his face completely flat. 

"Did you just get back?" Dave casually asked, attempting to hide his shock. Bro withdrew his katana. 

"I was here the whole time." What? 

"Pretty sure your friend noticed. He saw me when he said goodbye." Bro shrugged. 

"Didn't want to scare him off though. Don't want to ruin your chances at friendship with him or anything like that. He seemed cool." Bro wandered to the couch and picked up the xbox controller, staring at the game that was most definitely not supposed to have the character halfway up the wall of a building. 

Dave wandered back to his room. Gently closing the door. Well, at least John still seemed like he wanted to talk to him. That was good. Bro thought he was cool, that was also good.   
  
He picked up one of the photos he'd taken with John when they were messing around. Definitely a friend worth holding onto. 

Feeling inspired, he grabbed a blank paper. Time to ACTUALLY write a letter to Jane. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading ! Lemme know if you have any scenerio requests or anything ! Otherwise I'm just gonna keep writing whatever comes to mind haha~


	5. Letters

Jane left her house early for school that day.

Well, really she left early every day. She liked to arrive on time. Also she liked to take the roundabout way and pick up Roxy from her house, because Roxy was honestly the most scatterbrained person and never got up in time.

Well, at least she had a lot of friends to lean on. Her mom certainly wasn't doing anything for her. She was never around, always away on some business trip. Roxy didn't like to talk about it.

Roxy's house was pretty big. Jane had only been inside a handful of times, Roxy usually pushed her out.

Honestly she wasn't sure why, it seemed the house needed some sort of company since the largeness of it all must have been really depressing if it wasn't lived in.

Well the least she could do was pick up her best friend!

"Knock knock knock!" Jane actually rang the doorbell as she waited for Roxy to answer.

Sure enough she did, half her makeup on, the other half of her face bare.

"Hey Janey! Just let me finish this up and we can get going!" Roxy exclaimed, waving around her mascara wand. Jane was mostly just glad she was up. Last time she'd struggled to throw things at the window in an attempt to get Roxy to wake up. And then she had to wait for her makeup too. Jane didn't bother with makeup the way Roxy did. She claimed she just didn't need it, but honestly, that shit was hard to put on. Jane always looked like a clown.

And then they were on their way.

The actually made it early to class (usually they were cutting it close). Jane happily skipped to her locker and pulled it open, chatting amiably with Roxy all the while about whatever came to mind.

"Hey Janey, what's that?" Roxy pointed to her locker.

Jane glanced inside for the first time since opening it.

Inside sat an envelope, and on the front of it, in red ink, "Jane" was written on it. The writing wasn't terribly neat though.

"Holy shit," Roxy exclaimed. "Is that a love letter???" Jane felt her face heat up.

"No way Roxy! Why would **_I_** get a love letter and not you!" Jane glanced around, luckily it was early enough that there weren't really people nearby. Thank goodness, since Roxy wasn't exactly quiet. 

"Oh my gosh, please open it Jane!" Roxy reached over and tried to take the letter from Jane's hands, who lifted it above her head. 

"Okay okay! Just..! Calm down!" embarrassed, Jane fumbled to open the letter. Roxy had a deep smirk on her face. 

The letter was written in red ink, just like the front of the envelope. 

 

_jane,_  
  
_your style intrigues me_

_and even tho this sounds kinda cheesy_

_your smile brightens up my day_

_better than i can say_

_let it be said_

_you make me see red_

_im not very brave_

_but just so you know.. my name is dave_

 

"Wow, is this guy for real?" Roxy was seriously judging the poem over Jane's shoulder. It was pretty bad, but also sort of endearing. Jane folded it back up and put it in her bag. 

"Know anyone named Dave?" Jane asked, half joking. She didn't want to insult him in case he was nearby, because let's be honest, she didn't want to break some romantic boy's heart. 

"Yeah there are like 30 of them in the school probably. Benefits of a huge school." Roxy could straightface her sarcasm so well. Jane sighed. Was she even interested? 

 

Uh, yes, yes she was. 

 

"I guess I just have to wait for him to send another sign. Or should I leave something for him?" Jane thought for a moment. "No, I doubt he knows how to get into my locker, probably just fitted the letter in through the sides." 

Roxy agreed. Jane glanced around. Nobody was paying them any mind. 

 

Time to play the waiting game. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to feel about this story, I think I'm just gonna add on when I feel like it, so sorry if the writing isn't consistent. It's also been a while since I've read anything homestuck so my characterisations are fading from my mind. 
> 
> I swear I know Dave is way more cheesy than this...! And I think I have Jane all wrong! AUGH. 
> 
> Well, I'll do my best for now anyways!


	6. Woe is me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a break from the thrilling main story to take a look at this loser! (Hint: This loser is most definitely Cronus).

Cronus was probably the coolest dude in the twelfth grade. His hair was always slicked back and  _on point_ and damn if he didn't know how to create some pretty sick music. 

Wasn't really his fault nobody else could see how much of _a fly fucking guy_ he was. 

"Hey Meenah, doll, you're looking _fine_ today," Cronus winked in Piexies direction, who scowled at him. "You look pretty damn fine every day though girl, keep it up and all that." 

He threw in a wink at Aranea too just for good measure. She completely ignored him, instead continuing her chat with Meenah. He sat at his desk and stretched out as obnoxiously as he could. 

"Cronus," came a voice beside him. It was definitely the Vantas kid. "I would appreciate it if you took your feet off my desk. I believe you are perfectly capable of that, unlike, possibly other people who hopefully wouldn't be too triggered upon hearing me say that."

"Kan, listen man." Cronus didn't move his feet at all, more impressed with the fact he'd just accidentally rhymed. "I'm pretty sure everyone in here can walk just find and you ain't offending nobody. Just saying." 

"You have to be sensitive to things like this though. Not everyone can move their legs. We have to accept that and be as supporting to them as we can, make sure not to flaunt our _perfectly able legs_  - which happen to be _on my desk -_ so that they feel as included and normal as possible." 

"Man, Kan," _Yes_ , another rhyme, he needed to write while he was on a roll. "I love how you're just able to somehow throw that non-offensive stuff around but also still tell me how pissed off you are." 

Cronus sat back up normally, removing his feet from Kankri's desk. "Aight, I respect you and think you deserve your desk back for that, thanks for letting me borrow it and what not."

He was pretty sure Kankri started to talk after that, and as much as he always loved himself some Kankri talking, he was on a musical roll, and pretty much spent the whole class ignoring the teacher and writing his lyrics. He'd have to figure out some melodies for this later on his guitar, because this was just too golden not to use. 

Most of his lyrics consisted of girls and how hot they were. A few were just about getting laid in general. Today's were extra good (and probably not totally appropriate for high school- oh well).

Cronus liked to pretend he got laid all the time even tho he _cough_ secretly hadn't yet _cough_. Only Kankri knew that. He'd somehow managed to weasel it out of him.

It wasn't much of a problem cause he had seen enough porn to know what it was supposed to be. If the situation ever arose, which it certainly would in the near future once somebody noticed how amazing he was, he would have the technique down pat. Guys. Girls. Didn't matter as long as it was with somebody. 

By lunch time he was set and in the mood to do some classy as fuck flirting. Seemed like everyone in his class was kinda preoccupied though. Or perhaps blatantly ignoring him? Rude.

So he stepped out into the hallway. At the far end he spotted two wonderful ladies chatting by a locker. One hot blondie in pink and one hot mama with the pixie cut hair. Was her name Peixes because that was one cute pixie... uh no. That didn't work. He was pretty sure she wasn't a Peixes anyways. Meenah would probably lob his head off if she got wind that he was using her name as a pick up line. 

Either way, he sauntered on up. Can't start hot romance without them knowing you first. 

"Hey ladies," he said, with his voice as smooth as he could. If he wouldn't get in trouble he would have had his cigarette in his mouth because he looked about 10x cooler with that thing there. Damara tried to light it for him once, that was rude of her.

The two girls were just staring at him.

"How you doin'?" he asked with a wink. The girls shared an (uneasy) look. 

"Are you... Dave?" the pixie asked. Dave? Who in the heck was Dave? 

"Why would I be Dave, when I'm much cooler as Cronus?" he leaned on the lockers like he'd seen in a movie once. **So** cool.

"C-Cronus??!" the blondie squeaked out. Oh! She'd heard of him, even better. 

"You heard of me sweet cheeks?" Cronus leaned closer to her, she leaned away. "I'll show you a good time..." 

Instead of being swept off her feet like she probably should have been, she hastily grabbed her friend by the arm. 

"This dude's a total creep, Janey." she said. _Creep!?_ Who'd been saying that! "Come on, let's go!" 

And they scurried off. 

Cronus imagined his cigarette would have fallen out of his mouth if it had been there in the first place. Never before had he felt so insulted. 

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He turned his dismayed face to look at who it was, somebody hot hopefully, ready to pull him from his woes. 

Ah, Kankri. 

_Sigh._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Cronus. Dang. His try hard ways just make my heart flutter. Just kidding. 
> 
> This chapter is here just to tease you, much like how all of Cronus' life is a tease. 
> 
> The difference is while he never seems to get anywhere past the tease, we certainly will. 
> 
> Thanks for reading this so far! More to come later (:


	7. Gym Class

_Ugh._  

Gym class was the absolute worst. Not only that, but Kankri had forgotten his gym clothes at home (he brought them home to wash them!), so he was instead forced to wear this super ugly sweats that looked about as grimy as they did old, and some t-shirt that reeked as if it hadn't been washed in about three years. 

"John, fuck me sideways," Karkat scowled down at himself in disgust. 

"Sorry Karkat, I don't really want to fuck you in any way, let alone sideways." John gleefully added. Fucker was probably glad he didn't have to wear this garbage. Actually a literal garbage bag would be better. Karkat was seriously considering it. 

"Shouldn't there be laws against this or something. Fuck," Karkat squirmed. He felt disgusting. Like way more disgusting than usual. 

"Coach said he expected to see you as soon as you put the clothes on," John looked like he was struggling to breathe. Probably from the overwhelming stench of B.O. that wafted from this possibly illegal gym wear. "We.. probably shouldn't ditch class." 

Oh, how Karkat wanted to ditch class. So fucking badly. They would get caught if they tried now though. 

"Let's go," he said. "Time to march into hell." 

Oh yes. Hell it was. 

First thing they had to do was run laps. For 10 minutes. 

Karkat thought he would die, the sweats were heavy and hot, and clung to him in ways he did **not** want to think about. It seriously was throwing off his form. He's pretty sure John managed to lap him quite a few times too. Not that John was a terrible runner or anything, but Karkat prided himself on being the fitter of the pair. So much for that. 

It was made even worse that they had to count their laps. Karkat finished whilst tying with a few of the girls who really liked to take their time with this sort of thing, coming out at 13 finished laps. That was pure sadness. Like he literally wanted to fucking cry. 

John had 24 in that same time. 

The creepy Equius kid finished with a whopping 55 laps though. A literal monster. The teacher praised him openly in front of the class for his good fitness. Karkat wanted to throttle him. 

"Hey look at it this way," John leaned over to whisper to Karkat. "At least you don't smell quite as bad as him." 

"Wow what the fuck man," Karkat shouted - only to be scolded immediately by the coach. He glared daggers at John. He turned his attention back to the front only to notice creepy Equius staring at him, and sweating (which was the norm really). 

He tried to ignore him but every time he glanced his way, Equius was still looking at him. 

Finally coach stopped talking about how they should be exercising every day and instead said to play organized games amongst themselves. Lazy fucker. They divided the room into two, one half soccer and the other half basketball. John and Karkat went to the basketball side because that side always gave up on an organized game and usually just fooled around instead.

They took turns shooting baskets, and it was going pretty well. Then there was suddenly a loud commotion behind them, cheering. They looked towards the opposite end of the gym. They had started a half court game and Equius had the ball. 

Karkat and John watched in awe as Equius highhandedly scored for his team, then picked up the ball and looked directly at Karkat. A shiver went up his spine. 

Then he did it again, another basket, another stare. And another. Karkat's creep radar was off the wall. 

He urged John over to the soccer side, with some lame excuse about Equius making him uncomfortable (which wasn't even a lie), John completely understood, though he hadn't noticed the staring. 

They joined the soccer match as the players switched out, but it wasn't long before Equius was over on that side too, Karkat missed the ball as it was passed to him because he noticed him staring right at the moment of the pass. 

He pulled John aside.

"Okay, I'm serious, watch Equius because he is fucking staring me down for some reason," he said.

"I will if you take your hand off me because you are about as sweaty as him right now and it's sort of freaking me out." 

Karkat agreed and they were back at it, he tried REALLY HARD not to look, instead glancing up at John, who was looking. He was a true friend.

They got benched as it swapped out and it was Equius' turn to play. John slid beside Karkat on the bench. 

"Yeah he's definitely staring at you, it's actually really creepy?" John said. "Class is over in like a minute though so just make sure you're nowhere near him in the change room." 

Of course, he wasn't near him in the change room, but Karkat badly needed to cleanse his whole body after wearing the grossest uniform in the history of the world. 

He gave urged John over to the showers and handed him the offensive clothes through the curtains, instructing him to burn it with fire (or at least throw it away).

John confirmed he dumped it in the trash, and Karkat was free to frantically scrub the gross sweat away from his body. 

"Oh!" John's surprised voice came from the other side of the curtain. Karkat paused slightly from his cleaning. "E-Equius, you're showering today?" 

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

"I... shower every day...." Karkat heard Equius breathe out. 

Ok good, Equius wasn't just here to come spy on him or something. It was his routine - he did this every day. Wait, every day?? Really? With the amount of sweat..? That was gross. Karkat scrubbed harder. 

He had never noticed before. Nobody could blame him, after all why would you even pay that much attention to him. 

He rushed out with a towel wrapped around him and silently ushered John out. He was pretty sure that was the fastest he had ever gotten dressed in his life. They absconded from the change room as fast as they possibly could, panting. 

"That was so creepy!" John exclaimed between breaths. "Do you think he followed you in there?"

"I don't fucking know," Karkat gasped. "I don't even want to think about it."

He turned to face John.

"Let's just forget this ever happened. Don't look at him." 

John nodded, eyes wide. 

That really was the gym class from hell. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is even happening anymore. 
> 
> I wrote this while watching the US election coverage. I was so freaked out I just couldn't write anything properly. Welp. At least it forwards the story. 
> 
> Speaking of which I know the main note is glitched and will appear at the bottom here but I am still taking requests. And seeing as apparently I'm just writing whatever at this point well.... Do your worst lmao.


	8. A (Happy) Accident

"I can't believe _you_ slept in Janey!" Roxy shouted from a few steps behind Jane. The school was nearly in sight.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't sleep last night!" Jane panted out, she was slowing down. Running was not her thing.

It was the truth, but the reasoning behind her inability to sleep was very silly. 

"Oooh, thinking about boys were you?" Roxy teased from right next to her. Hit the nail on the head. Luckily, Jane was saved from answering because they had finally made it to the school - also her extreme panting was very difficult to speak through. The bell seemed to have just rung, and students were quickly emptying from the hallways 

"Maybe we should just go straight to class?" Jane squeaked out. Their lockers were a bit far from their class and neither of them really wanted to be yelled at by their teacher.

"Good idea," Roxy said, grabbing Jane's hand and dragged her towards the other end of the hall in a bit of a jog.

Turns out there's a reason you aren't supposed to run in the halls. As they turned the corner, they literally smacked right into some other people. Jane, who had been behind Roxy, managed to stop just in time. 

Roxy however, was not quite so lucky, she toppled over some poor kid, his glasses clattering across the floor. Thank gosh nobody else was really around, that would have been really embarrassing. Especially because Roxy's skirt was definitely flipped upwards. Good thing she always wore shorts underneath. The kids friend, a tall, blonde dude with sunglasses, quietly extended his hand to Roxy.

Both sides issued a slew of apologies. The kid who fell over didn't seem particularly upset. Roxy smiled as she retrieved his glasses for him. 

Actually, Jane noticed that he really only paid attention to Roxy. Jane pushed aside her jealousy. It was only because it was her who fell on top of him. 

Besides, Jane was the one who got the love letter after all!

"It's cool," said sunglasses dude after Jane apologized again for them running them over. "You're newer students right? You're headed to Professor English's class then, huh?" 

Douche-y sunglasses aside, he was pretty smart. His friend looked worried. 

"Ah man, his class is rough, I don't blame you for rushing!" He let out a toothy grin that immediately reminded Jane of her own too-large teeth. She decided to never bring up that she thought he was ugly, especially not for that reason.

"Yeah," chimed in sunglasses douche. "But if you guys ever need anything, I'm sure we can help you out. I'm Dave and this is John. If you got questions, hit us up. We'll be around." 

Jane tried not to react at Dave's name. No **way**.

"Oh~" Roxy smiled just a little too eagerly. "My name is Roxy, and this here is--"

"I'm Jane!" Jane cut her off. Always introduce yourself in front of a cute boy. Especially if his name is Dave aka the name of the person who is apparently crushing on you. 

"Nice to meet you! But we gotta run!" said John, who pulled Dave forward, and then they were gone.  

Jane gave Roxy a _look._   They started walking again, this time the classroom was in sight. 

"His name was Dave? Really? What are the chances of that?" said Roxy. 

"No way it's him. Us running into them was _way_ too much of a coincidence," Jane said. "Too bad because he was kinda hot." 

Roxy laughed. "I thought the other kid, John? He was cute..." 

Jane gave a gentle scoff. 

"Yeah, good news for you though, he couldn't take his eyes off you." she laughed. "Both of them really." 

"Whaat," Roxy exclaimed. They had finally made it to the classroom. It seemed their rude professor was not there yet. "Ok, so dorky John, yeah, but **Dave** had sunglasses on. You can't be sure _where_ he was looking!"

"It's just a feeling!" Jane said as they settled in. The bell rang.   
  
She didn't know just how wrong she was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Waah sorry it's so short! However, more should be coming soon! 
> 
> I've been trying to brainstorm some ideas for this story since really I just write stuff and it goes wherever my whims take me... LOL. 
> 
> As always, if there's a pairing or situation you want to see, leave it in the comments and I'll try to fit something in there for you!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay well :’D I have a fairly good idea for what direction this is going to head in, but if you guys leave in a request or something I will do my absolute best to include it in the story ! 
> 
> Also this story is mainly for writing practice so please keep that in mind :’D I just need to get into the habit of writing something every day…! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it today, see you tomorrow hopefully ;D


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